Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Going Big in the Herb Garden!

The Elecampane Has Started to Flower!
One of the activities I do when I am not blogging in the winter is get out my copies of The Herb Companion magazine and come up with topics.  I have always been interested in herb garden design.  In the end I am basically just an herb plunker, herbally speaking!  But this winter when I pulled out my magazines, I came across a wonderful array of lists and plans of herb plants for different situations.  Maybe this will be my light bulb moment, herbally speaking!  I was attracted to the elecampane when we were in France in 2011 and stopped at Chateau Val Jonais.  Bonnie was kind enough to give me hers and now I need to plant some others to give it a bigger punch!

The Elecampane Made a Statement at Val Jonais!
I was just reminded that as a guest blogger for The Herb Companion aka Mother Earth Living, I wrote a post called Growing Big Herbs:  Angelica, Borage and Tansy.  That post talked about the tansy attracting all of the ladybugs and their eggs into the herb garden among other benefits.  So big is just not taking up space.  In this post I also referenced the article that I found this winter by Rob Proctor from a January 2000 magazine called Big is Beautiful:  Grow Big Herbs for a Beautiful Garden.  As I get older and want to do less weeding, I am looking to bigger fuller herbs and herbal shrubs to take up spaces and make a statement.  Hopefully, you will find the right combination of herb plants from his list for your herb garden.  Don't forget to use the Mother Earth Living website because they have the archived articles from The Herb Companion magazine available to you.  I will try to keep sharing my finds in posts along the way!  Also if you go to my home page that gives you a page of my guest posts for The Herb Companion and Mother Earth Living!

The rain just continues to fall and the ickies and stickies are back.  I have made several batches of raspberry jam already.  So there is a silver lining in the rain.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  I will talk to you later.

3 comments:

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

My biggest herb is my bay tree, about 6' tall. I have rosemary, lavender, bee balm, not much at the moment.

Happy herb growing in the summer ~ FlowerLady

Mia Sherwood Landau said...

Hi Nancy. Just wanted you to know I linked to your blog today. Can't wait to try your cookie recipes now. We grow Lemon Verbena in North Texas, and sell the plants and dried herb. Thanks for your inspiration! http://aloysiatriphylla.blogspot.com/

Lemon Verbena Lady said...

Hi Flower Lady, Thanks as always for stopping by. Both of my rosemarys are in containers. I don't have much lavender any more. I do have a very old and tall bay tree in a container as well. Stay cool my friend. xo

Hi Mia, Welcome to my blog. I will link your blog to mine as well. Glad you enjoy lemon verbena as much as I do.